TAMPA, Fla. — Tea party activists, listen up: Mitt Romney is one of you. At least, that’s how one top Romney adviser sees it.

Speaking at POLITICO’s Playbook Breakfast with Mike Allen, senior Romney adviser Ron Kaufman said that the GOP candidate believes in shrinking government, slashing taxes and cutting spending — just like the grassroots movement. Romney won twice as many tea party votes than any of his primary rivals, Kaufman noted, and he pointed out that the candidate has “never” spent time serving in Washington.

“He actually is the tea party movement,” Kaufman said. “He truly is the outside candidate not the inside candidate.”

Kaufman also told Allen about some little-known facts about Romney. Unlike his public persona as a businessman and technocrat, Romney has a warm personality. In fact, Kaufman said, Romney has a “spectacular sense of humor,” likening it to a “dry, Jerry Seinfeld humor” and calling him a prankster.

“Like most people in politics, the public perception is different than the private personality,” Kaufman said.